


The Secret of Stealth, or, How Runaan Broke the Rules for Moonberry Surprise

by beautifulterriblequeen



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Cute, Gen, Moonfam goodness, Rayla is best student, Rayla takes everything Runaan says as gospel, Runaan breaks the rules, aka sneaking up on birds, anything for moonberry surprise, soft, soft Runaan, stealth training, what's a little light thievery among family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:55:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26633950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifulterriblequeen/pseuds/beautifulterriblequeen
Summary: Little Rayla can't turn invisible yet, so on the day of a full moon, she asks Runaan about stealth, and he gives her a lesson that she quickly puts to use. “The secret of stealth is that you don’t have to be invisible. You just have to be invisible to your enemy’s senses.”Shenanigans ensue, and by the end of the night, she's learned another lesson in stealth. She helps Callum with both of them much later, when they're trying to sneak past Sol Regem.
Relationships: Ethari/Runaan (The Dragon Prince), Lain/Tiadrin (The Dragon Prince), Moonfam - Relationship, Rayla & Runaan (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 67





	The Secret of Stealth, or, How Runaan Broke the Rules for Moonberry Surprise

“Runaan?”

The assassin opened his eyes at the sound of his tiny protégé’s voice and found her wide violet eyes peering up at him from just over the edge of his meditation rock. A tiny frown of concentration marked her forehead. “Yes, Rayla?” he asked softly.

Her fingers rubbed against the rock’s edge. “You’re gonna turn invisible tonight, right?”

“It is part of the ritual, yes.”

Her little shoulders slumped. “I can’t wait until I’m old enough. I wanna do _all_ the things you do!”

He smiled. “In time, you will. Stealth is a vital part of your training. But there is more to stealth than turning invisible.”

Rayla stood taller, and her horn nubs nearly reached his knee. “Really?” she asked brightly. “Can you teach me some stealth right now?”

Runaan unfolded his legs and rested his elbows on his knees, leaning forward. Rayla bounced eagerly on her toes, clasping her arms behind her. “I will teach you,” he said. “But you must do the learning.”

“I will!”

He held out his hand, and she clasped it. Together they walked through the woods. Rayla bounced off tree roots and little rocks while Runaan read the forest around them like an open book. Finally he pointed to a honeycup bush. Its bright golden blooms tipped up toward the sun, and several hummerbirds flitted around them, sipping at the tasty nectar inside.

“The secret of stealth, Rayla, is that you don’t _have_ to be invisible. You just have to be invisible to your enemy’s _senses_.”

He gestured for Rayla to watch from where she stood. Slowly, over several minutes, the assassin crept up on the feasting birds, freezing in place whenever one of them changed flowers. He never made a sound, approached from downwind, and eased forward in a patient crouch. Once he was close enough, he raised an eyebrow at Rayla to make sure he had her attention. With her violet eyes fixed eagerly on him, he lifted a soft finger and delicately brushed it along a hummerbird’s back.

The bird didn’t so much as twitch, but Rayla gasped loudly in amazement, startling all the birds into flight. Runaan looked askance at the suddenly empty bush, and Rayla covered her mouth in dismay.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare them away.”

Runaan rose and joined her again. By the time he reached her, the hummerbirds had returned to their flowers. “Don’t worry. They’re still hungry, so they’re very forgiving.”

Tiadrin’s voice filtered through the trees, calling for Rayla. She smartened up and gave Runaan a cute little bow. “Thank you for the lesson, Runaan. I’ll practice it as soon as I can!”

He smiled. “I know you will.”

Rayla darted off, and Runaan returned to his meditation. But something didn’t seem quite right, and he couldn’t relax. After a few minutes, it occurred to him what Rayla meant by “as soon as I can.” His eyes popped open, and he levered himself off the rock with a fondly exasperated sigh.

A few minutes later, he approached his friends’ house and spotted Lain setting a piping hot moonberry surprise in the windowsill to cool. He covered it with a gauzy domed frame to keep the hungry moon moths at bay and retreated into the house’s interior.

Rayla stalked up toward the window just as slowly as Runaan had approached the hummerbirds. With slow, deliberate care, she climbed the outer wall and eased out onto a lacy wooden shutter outside the kitchen window. Her little boots braced on the wooden lip, and her hands clung to the swirly curlicues as she plastered herself against the shutter and inched closer to her target.

Wide-eyed with curiosity, and a little impressed, Runaan slipped behind a tree to observe.

Rayla shifted her feet, hung on with just one hand, and pulled an oven mitt from inside her vest. But just as she reached for the dome that protected the moonberry surprise, she and Runaan both heard Tiadrin calling for Rayla again.

“Rayla! Where is that elfling?”

Runaan was in motion in a heartbeat, darting around the house to the front door. “Tiadrin,” he greeted warmly. “Rayla is out at the moment. Training. Is there something I can do for you in her stead?” Through the kitchen, he could just make out an oven mitt waving in the window.

Tiadrin glanced around him suspiciously. “‘Out’? ‘Training’? She’s four, Runaan. How ‘out training’ can she be?”

He nodded in appreciation for Tiadrin’s incisive observation. “She’s not far. We had a quick lesson just now, and she was eager to practice it. If she’s missed any duties at home because of it, then I’m to blame.”

The gauze dome over the moonberry surprise wobbled and fell out of sight, taking its prize with it. Runaan’s eyes widened momentarily, but he focused on Tiadrin as she replied, “I’m not asking you to put away Rayla’s laundry, Runaan. That’s her task.”

The dome returned to the empty window sill, and Runaan felt his shoulders relax. “Perhaps it’s mine as well, since I’m usually to blame for her getting dirty.”

Lain walked past and clapped a hand on Runaan’s shoulder. “He’s got you there, sweet. Anyone seen my other mitt? It’s got to be around here somewhere…”

Tiadrin and Runaan both glanced after him fondly. Then she told Runaan, “Alright, it’s a fair exchange, then.” She picked up a small stack of folded clothes and handed them to him.

Runaan put Rayla’s clothes away, bade his friends farewell, and went in search of Rayla. She was waiting for him on his meditation rock with a pan of warm moonberry surprise in front of her. The smears on her cheeks told him that she’d already taken several bites. She offered Runaan a second spoon.

He took it and sat on the other side of the pan. “Tell me your plan, Rayla.”

“I sneaked up on the moonberry surprise really quietly, just like you did, so no one inside would hear me!” She took another big bite.

“And when they realize it’s not there?”

“That’ll be a long time from now.”

Her certainty intrigued him. “Why do you say that?”

“I left a big scoop of moonberry surprise on a leaf in the window sill. You said that the secret of stealth is to be invisible to my enemy’s senses. Well, smell is a sense. If my parents can still smell the moonberry surprise, they’ll think it’s all there!”

Runaan blinked and smiled. Rayla had been paying close attention, after all.

“But you had to distract everyone,” Rayla added, looking downcast. “I couldn’t do it on my own. They’d have caught me if you hadn’t helped me. So I guess I failed.” Her shoulders slumped, and she looked at her spoon sadly.

Runaan frowned, perplexed. “Your prize is right here, Rayla. You haven’t failed. I have many more secrets of stealth to teach you, and this is one of them: it’s much easier to be stealthy with a partner than it is to go alone.” He dug his spoon into Rayla’s pilfered prize, and so did she. They clinked their spoons together in a moonberry toast and ate up.

Late that night, after sharing a moonlight ritual together, Runaan, Ethari, Lain, and Tiadrin came to Rayla’s house for a late meal. When Lain lifted the gauze dome to present dessert, everyone looked worriedly at Runaan, whose favorite treat had gone missing. Even Rayla.

The assassin did his best to keep the guilty flush off his cheeks as he said calmly, “Well, that’s definitely a surprise, isn’t it?”

“The hungry are very forgiving,” Rayla quoted wisely.

Ethari started laughing right away. Tiadrin glanced between Rayla and Runaan before joining him. Lain kept staring at the empty window sill and bemoaning his lost baking, which made the others laugh harder. Runaan shook his head with a smile, and he couldn’t help giving Rayla a fond but stealthy wink.

Somewhere nearby, in the light of the full moon, an empty moonberry surprise pan lay upturned on a nice flat rock, bearing a pair of crossed spoons.

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by a screencap post on tumblr by @ladyandherbooks where Rayla explains the secret of stealth to Callum. @ladyandherbooks loves the idea that Runaan taught that line to Rayla, and I do too! She was such an attentive student to Runaan, she probably memorized most everything he taught her word for word. 
> 
> And so, this ficlet happened.


End file.
